Practical Theology Commons^™

A Strategy For Increasing The Levels Of Financial Literacy Among African-Americans In The Greenville Neighborhood Of Jersey City, Nj, Troy S. Levy

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Financial illiteracy afflicts many African-American and Black immigrant communities. The realities of residing in urban locales have contributed to the illiteracy and many times have led to a negative legacy of financial stewardship in these same communities. There are external challenges as well as internal challenges that have stifled African-American financial literacy. Not only is a negative corporate legacy of financial stewardship a result, but poverty, higher vulnerability towards financial bullying (housing discrimination, payday loan shops, etc.) among other challenges are directly correlated to the problem. Although poverty is an effect of lower levels of financial literacy in these …

A Strategy To Train Members To Encourage Non-Members To Make Decisions For Baptism And Church Membership At The Middletown Valley Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Joshua William Voigt

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

In every church I have pastored, there have been individuals who attend the church but are not members. Some come to community-focused events the church holds throughout the year, while others come to the weekly worship service. There are also some who come whenever the doors of the church are opened. This group of people includes both Christians from other denominations, as well as non-Christians. The Middletown Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church had an unusually large ratio of non-member to member attendance.

Method

A six-month evangelistic strategy was developed for the Middletown Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church. The strategy began with …

Training, Equipping, And Deploying Teenagers For Preaching With A Prophetic Emphasis At The Plantation Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Iosif Salajan

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Teenagers were not integrated in the preaching ministry of the Plantation Seventh-day Adventist Church. Their involvement in the worship service revealed challenges in publicly expressing their faith and spiritual experience. The absence of training, equipping, and deploying teenagers for preaching ministry contributed to their low retention and their lack of representation in the leadership of the church.

Method

Between August 2018 and May 2019, under the coordination of the researcher, preaching mentors offered teenage mentees from the Plantation Seventh-day Adventist Church a complete learning cycle called sermonic process. It started with producing the sermon, continued with practicing the sermon …

Strategy To Implement And Evaluate A Health And Wellness Program In The Inner-City Of Benton Harbor, Michigan Through The Harbor Of Hope Church, Imasiku Mubita

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The data from the Berrien County Health Department (2011b) shows that the city of Benton Harbor has unusually high prevalence of obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. In addition, the city is a food desert and residents lack good healthcare coverage which helps to exacerbate these lifestyle diseases among its inner-city residents. Also, the dearth of healthy food intake plus the lack of exercise further hampers the community's health.

Method

A nine-week health-wellness program was opened to the community through the Harbor of Hope church in Benton Harbor. During this program community members had their biometrics screened at the beginning and …

Applying Biblical Principles Towards A Model Of Theological Dialogue At The Hillside O'Malley Church, David Shin

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Based on feedback from members of the Hillside O’Malley Church through personal conversations, theological polarization threatened to paralyze the local church and keep it from fulfilling its mission of ministering to its members and reaching out to the community with the gospel message. The theological polarization stemmed from divergences on the presuppositional, macro-hermeneutical level that are revealed visibly in how members interpret the biblical text.

Method

The methodology that was employed was to derive biblical principles from an exegesis of the book of Acts specifically related to theological reason, which included an understanding of how presuppositions worked in the …

Discovering Successful Pastoral Mentors Based On Their Spiritual Gifts Cluster And Engaging Them In Mentorship In The Wisconsin Conference Of The Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Adam Case

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Many pastors are placed into pastoral ministry with passion and education but lack sufficient mentoring to help them succeed in ministry. These pastors would benefit from a mentor who could support them and/or grow them through intentional mentorship in specific agreed upon areas. The concept of mentoring is biblical, Jesus being a prime example, and one that is in line with the principles of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. There is no conflict with the concept of mentoring, but nothing practical has been put into place in the Wisconsin Conference to discover good pastoral mentors and then engage them in …

Increasing Effectiveness And Efficiency Through A Collaborative Evangelism Strategy Within The Georgia-Cumberland Conference Of Seventh-Day Adventists, Victor Maddox

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

There were a number of organizations, ministries, and individuals throughout the Georgia-Cumberland Conference (GCC) territory engaged in various forms of evangelism which include health education, literature distribution, media presentations, community service, Bible instruction, etc. All had some level of success. Personal observations of these efforts revealed a redundancy in programing, uncoordinated planning, insufficient record-keeping, inadequate follow-up on interests generated, and failure to build upon the results of previous evangelistic meetings within the GCC.

Method

The goal was to improve the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the evangelism process in the GCC through the coordination of evangelistic meetings between organizations, …

Developing Spiritual Disciplines In Youth And Young Adult Leaders Through Mentoring At The Peachtree City Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Nathaniel E. Elias

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The Peachtree City Seventh-day Adventist Church (PTC) leadership and parents of teenagers expressed concerns regarding the lack of spirituality and church involvement of their youth and young adults. Church appointed youth and young adult leaders had not received consistent spiritual equipping to share with the youth and young adults of the church. Youth ministry primarily focused on recreational fellowship and lacked spiritual focus. The church approached the associate pastor to provide spiritual equipping for youth and young adult leaders.

Method

Six church nominated youth and young adult leaders participated in a 10-month mentorship program that equipped them with spiritual …

A Strategy To Coach Pastors To Revitalize Declining Churches In The Carolina Conference And Other Seventh-Day Adventist Conferences In The United States, Brad Cauley

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Many English-speaking Seventh-day Adventist churches are in an attendance decline or plateau in the United States. Specifically, the investigator found that 56% of English-speaking churches within the Carolina Conference of Seventh-day Adventists were in decline when comparing the five-year attendance mean for 2008-2012 and 2013-2017 using annual average attendance data. This discovery was alarming. Simultaneously, however, the population was growing in many of these communities. More intentionality was needed to stem the tide of attendance decline. These churches were in need of revitalization, but many of their pastors lacked the natural temperament and/or support needed for revitalization to occur. …

Desarrollo E Implementacion De Un Programa De Entrenamiento Para Predicadores Laicos En Las Iglesias Adventistas Del Distrito De Fort Washington, Nueva York, S. Yeury Ferreira

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The task of this project was to develop, implement, and evaluate a training program for lay preachers in the Seventh-day Adventist churches within the district of Fort Washington, New York, where the author of this document has served as pastor since 2014. Given that this missionary district comprises three churches (Fort Washington, Washington Avenue, and Luz y Esperanza), it is impossible for the pastor to always preach in every one of those congregations, Therefore, the preaching responsibility falls on the shoulders of church elders and other lay preachers. Pastoral observation indicates that, out of the 400 church members who …

Improving Family Satisfaction Through Conflict-Management Training For The Immanuel Seventh-Day Adventist Church In Toronto, Canada, Anthony M. Reid

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The Immanuel Seventh-day Adventist Church is a multiracial congregation with members from over 35 countries, with approximately 200 families in regular attendance. Twenty percent of these families are interracial families, while 80% are a balanced mix of ethnic makeup. Reports from leaders and members, as well as pastoral observation, led us to the conclude that many families were affected by family squabbles and separation due to unresolved conflict. Consequently, there was a high level of stress and family dissatisfaction. This resulted in declining participation in ministry and mission.

Methods

A 10-hour conflict-management education-training program was developed and implemented. The …

Ministering To Youth And Young Adults Through A Sports Initiative In The Normandie Avenue Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Michael S. Jenkins Jr.

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The Normandie Avenue Seventh-day Adventist church is centrally located among other nearby Seventh-day Adventist churches in south Los Angeles, California. The presence of youth and young adults in worship services has diminished. Ministry participation among this group at Normandie has also diminished. Adventist and non-Adventist youth and young adults are not being attracted to the church or its ministries. Youth and young adults who do attend worship service and or participate in ministries do not have a strong relationship with the pastor or other spiritual figures. A 2008 study shows the median age of Adventist congregations is 51 while …

A Collaborative Leadership Strategy To Develop A Missional Focus At The Anderson Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Murray L. Miller

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The problem addressed in this project was the lack of missional focus at the Anderson Seventh-day Adventist Church. Four symptoms were correlated to this problem. First, from 2010 to 2013 the Anderson Seventh-day Adventist Church witnessed a slight decline in tithe and a drop in mission offerings. Second, conference archive data from 2003 to 2013 showed that the membership had remained steady while attendance had gradually been in decline. Third, though no formal surveys were available at the initiation of this project, anecdotal evidence from the conference to the local level showed varying opinions concerning the focus of the …

A Strategy For Empowering Parents In Family Discipleship At The Philadelphia Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Hubert A. Wilkie

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Although the Bible clearly calls parents to train their children in the faith and pass on faith to the next generation (Deut 6:4-9; Eph 6:4), few parents at the Philadelphia Seventh-day Adventist Church seem to be involved actively in their children's spiritual development. As a result, the way God designed the family to function is being inadvertently abandoned. This apparent lack of faith and values transmission has resulted in a very high attrition rate among our youth, who are usually disengaged by age 15 and leave the church by age 25. This perceived crisis over the dropout rate has …

A Pediatric Spiritual Care Training Model Utilizing Volunteers At Children's Hospital In New Orleans, Louisiana, Allen L. Mitchell

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Children's Hospital—New Orleans is a regional medical center for children with a 247-bed capacity. The hospital is growing in size and scope. However, the number of quality spiritual care providers has not kept up with the growing needs of the institution. As a medical center continues to grow, more spiritual care providers are needed to meet the demand of our increasing patient population. Financial resources are limited and budgets do not favor hiring additional full-time staff chaplains.

Method

A spiritual care training manual was developed to increase the number of trained volunteers to provide spiritual care coverage. A 12-hour …

A Dialogical Encounter Between Young Black Men And The Police In Dougherty County: Towards A More Effective Community Trust, Joshua C. Nelson

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Disproportionate police shootings of unarmed Black men have been a controversial topic of discussion in recent years. While Black men are 6% of the United States population, they make up almost half of the fatal police shootings each year. These figures indicate that policing tactics are depriving certain citizens of their right to live in peaceful societies where everyone experiences justice.

Method

The focus of this study was to develop, test and employ a training intervention model that facilitated a community of trust between law enforcement officers and Black American youth. This was done through the development of an …

Development And Implementation Of A Community-Based Health Evangelism Strategy At Fellowship Seventh-Day Adventist Church In Tallahassee, Florida, Daphnis Ricardo

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The Fellowship Seventh-day Adventist church desired to reach its community but did not have a strategic plan on how to do so. The lack of a strategic plan hindered the effectiveness of the church in making an impact in its neighborhood and left the members with a sense that they were not making a difference in their community. Initial observations done through formal talks with church leaders suggested that health ministry was a focus where their church had a strength and was a means by which to reach the neighborhood.

Method

The methods used were to develop a team …

A Strategy To Reach Families With Children In Calgary, Alberta, Ghenadie Girleanu

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

During the last decade, Calgary Central Church has not been intentionally involved in reaching families with children. They have done many different types of evangelism and community outreach programs but nothing to attract this specific segment of the population. With a large number of unreached families with children in the community, the need for a specific outreach project like this was obvious.

Method

A 12-week program to reach families with children was developed and implemented during 2016-2017. The approach of this project was to reach the parents by reaching their children first. For this purpose, Kids' Discipleship Club was …

A Cosmopolitan Theology For Creating An Urban Missional Small Group To Reach Postmodern Generations In The City Of Lacombe, Alberta, Lyle Milton Notice

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Many youths within the Canadian city of Lacombe, Alberta, are having difficulty finding traditional church attractive, engaging, relevant, and meaningful. Because of the prevalent postmodern mindset of youth in the community, thoughts toward church, religious gatherings, and organized religion are pessimistic and skeptical. Research has pointed out that faith-based community initiatives have been either lacking or ineffective in addressing the disengagement and disillusionment being demonstrated by postmodern millennials.

Method

The purpose of this study was to see if an urban missional small group made up of 10 to 15 youth would have a positive social spiritual impact on their …

Developing Awareness Of Special Needs As Relating To Autism Spectrum Disorders In The All Nations Seventh-Day Adventist Church And Creating A Strategy For Outreach To Affected Families, Shaun Brooks

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

According to recent statistics, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects about 1 in 59 children each year, and over the past decade, there has been a two-fold increase in ASD diagnoses in children. Another study points out that 80% of marriages that have a child with autism will end in divorce due to stress and other factors. If the local rate of ASD reflects that of the national rate, there is an opportunity for the Atlanta All Nations Church to provide ministry to both church and community families affected. As it stood, there was not a significant awareness about Autism …

Improving Marital Satisfaction: An Enrichment Program For Couples In The Huntington, New York Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Eddly B. Benoit

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

One of the first and most sacred institutions established by God at creation was the institution of marriage. It is God who placed in man the desire to leave his father and mother, that he might be joined to his wife, with the objective of becoming one flesh. This perfect union ordained by God has proven elusive in many marriages. When I started my pastorate at the Huntington Seventh-day Adventist Church, I observed that many of the married couples were having difficulties communicating effectively and resolving conflict. I noticed that some of them lacked the behavioral skills and resources …

A Training Program For Members To Minister To Hiv/Aids Patients At The Nyagiki Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Kenya, Job Ogoti Getange

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

During my pastoral experience at Nyagiki, I observed that although HIV/AIDS was a big threat in the church and society, many of the church leaders were not involved in addressing this crisis. There were no intentional church training programs to warn the members about its danger. The church did not make a budget of time or money to address this pandemic. The root problem that caused this situation was lack of health information literacy on HIV/AIDS to equip these leaders with knowledge and skills to deal with this crisis.

Method

The Doctor of Ministry Research Project was conducted at …

Strategy To Retain Second Generation Immigrants At The Bethlehem French Seventh-Day Adventist Church In New Jersey, Emile Duvivier

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Bethlehem French Seventh-day Adventist Church in East Orange, New Jersey, has been facing the challenges of any typical church located in urban environments in this post-millennial world. The church is confronted with member depletion in general, and the young people, in particular. The problem of retention has plagued our congregation in a manner that stagnated our exponential growth. A large percentage of the children who were born and raised in the church is leaving the Seventh-day Adventist faith after college. The Bethlehem French Seventh-day Adventist Church has not been exempted.

Method

To resolve the problem, I have put in …

Servant Leadership Development Model For Staff At The University Of The Southern Caribbean, Lloyd Eric Jacott

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Concerns have been raised by students regarding the unsatisfactory nature of customer service from administrative departments within the University of the Southern Caribbean such as Finance and Admissions. An investigation into this matter, using a focus group design was conducted by Brent Marshall for his Master's Thesis (2013) through the School of Business. However, prior to this an exit report of graduating students was conducted by the Department of quality assurance (2012). The findings of these two investigations provide the basis for implementing the servant leadership development model for staff at the Admissions, Records and Recruitment Departments of the …

Facing The Challenge Of Mobile Technology: A Seminar On Strengthening Intimacy In Families At The Hendersonville Seventh-Day Adventist Church, David Nicholas Wright

Doctor of Ministry Projects

The Problem

The new wave of smartphones and other forms of mobile technology presents an always available Internet connection that is hard for many families to manage. Without sufficient awareness of technology's subtle impact on relationships and without appropriate boundaries, many suffer loss of face-to-face interaction, communication and intimacy within their family circles.

The Method

The purpose of this project was to investigate whether a five-session educational seminar would create greater awareness and motivate changes in mobile technology usage that is seen as beneficial to parents and family.

The Results

Of the 11 families who committed to coming to the …

Equipping Adventist Community Services Directors As Leaders For The Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Sung Kun Kwon

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The Adventist Community Services (ACS) broad scope of services increasingly demanded competent leadership that was not always readily found in local churches. For this reason, ACS leadership began to plan an advanced leadership development program for the ACS personnel, pastors, and church members at the union, conference, local levels, and worldwide. Up to that time leadership development programs within ACS tended to be haphazard and inconsistent. While there were several conferences that provided local leadership development for ACS leaders, there was no centralized leadership development program. To effectively lead the organizations that served the various communities, it was necessary …

Educating Young Adults In The Conejo Valley To Choose A Godly Spouse, Simon Liversidge

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Divorce rates and marital satisfaction rates are similar in both Christian and non-Christian young adults. Yet increases in church attendance, religious commitment and spirituality have been shown to make significant differences in divorce and marital satisfaction rates. However, many young adults have no framework to understand how to choose a potential spouse, or what factors or characteristics are most important in making such a choice. Almost all premarital education is aimed at young adults who have already chosen their spouse, but have no education aimed at understanding what matters most in making this choice.

Method

A weekend seminar was …

The Development, Implementation, And Evaluation Of A Preaching Discipleship Training Program For Church Members In The Knoxville First Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Marcus Alden Swearingen Bates

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The Knoxville First Seventh-day Adventist Church has members endowed with the spiritual gift of speaking (preaching). However, no training program was available for these gifted members to develop and practice their preaching skills. The senior pastor, associate pastor, and guest speakers handled the preaching responsibilities, while these members were not edifying the congregation through the exercise of their preaching gift. The absence of a preaching training program also revealed a neglect of the pastoral responsibility to disciple members in the area of preaching. This project was an effort to train gifted members in the preaching craft for a potential …

Desarrollo E Implementacion De Un Programa De Administracion Para Pastores Distritales Con Multiples Iglesias En La Union Peruana Del Sur, Enzo Ronald Chávez Idrogo

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The South Peruvian Union-Mission has seven fields and 227 district pastors. Every pastor serves an average of 11 local churches, and the financial reality of local fields makes it impossible to add more pastors. Although ministers meet the evangelistic goals of the local fields, some administrative deficiencies have become evident in areas such as planning, administrative meetings with the entire congregation, church board meetings, integral visitation program, church budget, discipline for erring members, etc. Besides the positive impact expected from this project in the South Peruvian Union, the lessons learned from the development and implementation of this project has …

Transforming The Lexington Seventh-Day Adventist Church Through Spirituality And Prayer, Pavel Goia

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Often in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, as in many other Christian churches, while there is a lot of talk about transformation and growth, spiritual and numerical growth seems lacking. There is a tendency to try new programs and methods that may seem to lead to success or growth, yet many of those projects use the resources and energy of the church with no real lasting results. This often leads to frustration and lack of hope for real change. Growth in the first-century church and in other times throughout history was real, and such growth is still possible.

Method

At …